diff --git a/Dockerfile.base b/Dockerfile.base
index e94d6a7..c9f503e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.base
+++ b/Dockerfile.base
@@ -289,15 +289,21 @@ RUN ARCH=$(case "${TARGETARCH}" in amd64) echo "x86_64" ;; arm64) echo "aarch64"
 # Always installed in the base. Set INSTALL_MEMPALACE=false at base-build
 # time to shave ~300 MB.
 #
-# Stall protection (fixed 2026-06-13): mempalace-mcp is launched by the
-# `mempalace.ts` pi extension from mempalace-toolkit (cloned below). That
-# extension now applies a per-REQUEST timeout in its JSON-RPC client and
-# kills the child on stall, so a virtiofs cold-open of chroma.sqlite3 /
-# HNSW load can no longer hang the pi TUI uninterruptibly. Tunables:
+# Stall protection (fixed 2026-06-13; self-heal added 2026-06-25):
+# mempalace-mcp is launched by the `mempalace.ts` pi extension from
+# mempalace-toolkit (cloned below). That extension applies a per-REQUEST
+# timeout in its JSON-RPC client and kills the child on stall, so a virtiofs
+# cold-open of chroma.sqlite3 / HNSW load can no longer hang the pi TUI
+# uninterruptibly. A stall-kill is no longer a permanent latch either: the
+# next tool call respawns the server with capped exponential backoff (the
+# budget resets on any successful response). Tunables:
 # MEMPALACE_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS (default 60000), MEMPALACE_MCP_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS
-# (default 120000); 0 disables. A standalone stdio-watchdog shim is NOT
-# needed — the extension already owns request/response correlation. See
-# CHANGELOG.md "Unreleased > Fixed".
+# (default 300000 — generous so a genuine first cold-open isn't killed),
+# MEMPALACE_MCP_MAX_RESPAWNS (default 2; 0 disables self-heal),
+# MEMPALACE_MCP_RESPAWN_BACKOFF_MS (default 1000); timeouts of 0 disable.
+# Defaults live in the extension, so no ENV is needed here. A standalone
+# stdio-watchdog shim is NOT needed — the extension already owns
+# request/response correlation. See CHANGELOG.md "Unreleased > Fixed".
 ARG INSTALL_MEMPALACE=true
 # Pin to a known-good version. Bump deliberately, not implicitly: an
 # unpinned install silently swept in mempalace 3.3.x/3.4.0 with a broken